Thomas bussell



UNITED 'STATES TENT OFFICE.,

THOMAS RUSSELL, OF NEWY YORK, N. Y.

OVEN.

'the city, county, and State of New York,

have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Ovens for Baking Bread and other Purposes; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, forming part of this specification, in which-g Figure l is a vertical section of an oven with my improvements, taken through the receiving door. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section of the same, in the plane indicated by` the line 00, ai, of Fig. l. Fig. 3 is a vertical section of the front of the oven through the discharging door.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts in all the figures.

My invention consists in a certain system of screws and endless chains in combination with a certain system of permanent ways or tracks leading from end to end of the interior and exterior and through the doorways of a horizontal oven, having two doors on the same side, one for receiving the bread or 4other substance to be baked, and the other for discharging it after ithas been baked, and with proper means of connecting with said screws and chains a series of carriages to run upon said ways; the whole constituting a simple, and eifective and very durable automatic apparatus for conveying the bread or other substance to be baked, into the oven, carrying it through the same, and

delivering it therefrom when the baking process is completed, and for conveying the said carriages, when outside the oven, from the discharging door back to the receiving door.

My invention also consists in effecting the opening and closing of the receiving and discharging doors of the oven by the pressure against them of the aforesaid carriages.

To enable others to make and use my invention, I will describe its construction and operation.

A, is the oven, having a furnace B, below it, covered by an arch C, and having hollow end walls D, D, which constitute flues leading `from the furnace up into the hollow roof E, which communicates with a chimney that is not shown.

F is the receiving door and Gr is the discharging door, both in front of the oven and one near each end. The oven is intended to have a considerable length from one door to the other compared with `its width from front to back. The receiving door F is suspended by a hinge or hinges a, at its top edge and arranged to open by swinging inward, and close itself by dropping to a vertical position by its own weight. The discharging door G, is fitted to slide up and down in a suitable frame and opens by an upward movement.

I-I, is a horizontal frame of cast or wrought iron occupying the whole horizontal area of the oven and built into or suitably supported by the side walls thereof,

said frame containing the bearings for a double series of small rollers E), b, which constitute ways or tracks running longitudinally within the oven from one door to the other, and also for two double series of similar rollers c, c, and CZ, cl', constituting ways or tracks running at right angles to the ways or tracks Z),` opposite the two doors F, G, the tops of all the said rollers being in a horizontal plane on a level with or slightly above the bott-oms of the two doorways.

I, is a horizontal platform of iron or timber erectedoutside of the oven and extending' from end to end thereof, and containing the bearings for a double series of rollers e, e, which constitute tracks parallel and level with l), extending from one ldoor to the other, and for two double series of rollers c, c, and d, CZ', constituting continuations of the ways or tracks c, c, and CZ, (Z, through the two doorways. These roller tracks are for the carriages W, IV, to run upon; the said carriages having flat bottoms which will rest on all the rollers above which they happen at any time to be. The ways 0, 0, o, o, are for supporting the carriages on their way into the oven; the ways l), for supporting them on their way through the oven from opposite the receiving door to opposite the discharging door; the ways CZ, d, CZ/ 61, for supporting them on their way from the oven; and the ways e, e, for supporting them on their return outside the oven from the discharging door to the receiving door.

X, is a stop rail to prevent the carriages running too far out from the oven.

is a horizontal shaft extending the whole length of the oven, having suitable bearings provided for it in the end walls of the oven and also in the frame H, at such intervals as may be desirable; the said shaft being arranged between and slightly below the ways Z), Z), and having a screw thread J upon it which extends from a point opposite the center of one door to another point opposite the center of the other door. li, is a similar shaft arranged parallel with J, between the ways e, e, outside the oven; said shaft being supported in bearings in or upon the platform I, and having upon it a screw thread K, extending the same length as the screw thread J The screw J is for moving the carriages within the oven along the ways Z9, Z), from the door F to the door Gr; and the screw K, for moving the carriages without the oven, along the ways e, e, from the door Gr to the door F, each carriage being provided with a tooth 7L', on its bottom to take into the threads of said screws for the purpose of enabling them to be driven thereby.

L, M, are endless chains running between the ways c, c, c, c', and eZ, (Z, rZ, cZ, and through the doors F, G; said chains being carried by pulleys N, O, on two shafts P, Q, arranged in bearings in the platform I, behind the screw shaft K, and pulleys R, S, on two shafts T, U, arranged in bearings in the frame I-I, behind the screw shaft J. These chains are for the purpose of moving the carriages along the tracks c, 0, 0, c, and CZ, cZ, CZ, rZ; and .for this purpose they are furnished with fingers g, g, at proper intervals or otherwise constructed to take hold of a tooth ZL on each carriage, on its being brought by one of the screws to a position opposite either door.

The shaft J, which is the driver, cai'ries two spur gears y', and Z0, the latter Zc, of which gears with a spur gear U', on the shaft U, and thus drives the endless chain M; and the former j, of which gears by an intermediate gear m on a short shaft n, with a spur gear T, on the shaft T, and thus drives the other endless chain L. The chains drive the shafts P, Q.; and the shaft P cariies a spur gear P', which gears with a spur gear Z, on the screw shaft Ix, and thus drives said shaft. The two shafts J, and K, rotate in opposite directions, and the two endless chains inove in opposite directions as indicated by arrows in the drawing.

The carriages consist simply of flat bottomed trays, and may be made of iion with or without brick linings. Their front ends are made of wedge form, as shown at q, g, in Figs. l and 2, so that they may, by their operation on beveled projections at the bottom of the inner si le of the door G, raise the said door to perm' their passage out of the oven.

The operation of baking is conducted and proceeds in the following manner z-The screw shafts and endless chains being severally set in motion in the respective directions before described, by power applied to the screw shaft J, the carriages, (which are loaded with the bread or other substance to be baked, while upon the external platform I,) are taken into the oven through the receiving door F, by the endless chain L, as fast as room is made for them at that end of the oven by the operation of the screw J on the carriages which have previously entered; the door F being swung open by the pressure of the entering carriages against 1t and closing again as soon as a carriage has entered. In this manner the ways Z), Z), are kept full of carriages which as fast as they are received upon the said ways, are set in motion thereon toward the door G, by the endless screw J which rotates at such velocity that the time occupied by the carriages in passing from the door F, to that G, is sufficient for the baking process. As soon as a carriage arrives opposite the door G, it is taken by the chain M, and run along the ways CZ, CZ, cZ, cZ, through the door G, which is opened by the action of the wedgelike front ends of the carriage upon its projections p, p, and which closes by its own weight as soon as the carriage has passed out on to the platform I. Arriving on the platform the carriageV is taken hold of by the screw K', and conveyed along the track c, e, toward the door F, and as it slowly passes along it is unloaded and reloaded.

I will remark that I have shown one door as swinging open and another as sliding open for the sake of illustrating two methods of opening the doors by the carriages, but both of the doors may be arranged to open with a swinging or both with a sliding movement.

The advantage which this oven is supposed to possess over other mechanical or automatic ovens consists chiefly in dispensing with allcarrying apparatus such as rotating tables, endless aprons, &c., by the use of permanent ways and generally in the fewness of its working parts.

Instead of using rollers in the ways or tracks as described, plain railways may be used and rollers or ball casters be provided on the carriages to run on the said railways.

I do not claim to be the first inventor of an oven in which the substance to be baked travels horizontally from a door where it enters to a door on the same side where it is discharged. But

That I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. The employment in such an oven, in combination with permanent ways or tracks arranged at right angles to each other within. without. and through the doorways substantially as described, and with a series teeth or their equivalents on said carriages doors of the carriages themselves substanto connect With said screws and chains; the tially as described, thereby dispensing with Whole operating substantially as and for the special machinery for that purpose.

purpose set fort-h. THOMAS RUSSELL. y 5 2. And I also claim the opening of the i Witnesses:

oven doors to admit and permit the exit of VM. TUsoIacL7 the carriages by the direct action on the L. F. COHEN. 

